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Behind the Fine Words

David Brooks (“What Our Words Tell Us,” column, May 21) admits that Google’s database of words does not say how they were used, but then interprets their use as he pleases.

For instance, he says that because use of words having to do with “moral virtue” has declined in the last 50 years, we have become less moral, but words like “faith” and “kindness” are often used in preaching virtue, and not necessarily in practicing it.

As we have seen, the clergy are not always pinnacles of virtue, and “moral” words are often spoken hypocritically. Do not dictators always speak in intensely nationalistic and righteous terms?

And although not totalitarian, the very same people here who preach “family values” are the ones who are against Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and now the Affordable Care Act.

DAN KAINENNew York, May 21, 2013

A version of this letter appears in print on May 25, 2013, on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Behind the Fine Words. Today's Paper|Subscribe